My link goes to Power Line, which has an update saying the NYT has corrected the mistake without a correction notice. Well, this just happens to be one of those rare occasions when I have a copy of the print edition at hand. Here's a photograph of the laughable gaffe:

They're not wrong. They have merely defined the term. All terms and meanings are fungible, subject to change a moment's notice by a liberal/progressive if it suits their needs. For you to insist on a traditional, literal interpretation only reveals you to be a rigid, uncompromising, un-nuanced racist.

It's Yiddish not Spanish, if any of their editors knew anything about that language some on the progressive-left might think that the paper was pro-Israel instead of filled with delusional self-loathing Jews.

Why has it become fashionable for New York liberals to use Yiddish words?

I'm here on the Left Coast. Words like schlep, and schlong entered my lexicon at the same time as groovy, and far-out. It was only as an adult that I came to understand they were Yiddish words (schlep and schlong, not groovy, and far-out).

When Al Gore was running for president in 2000, I was at a meeting he had with high tech executives in Massachusetts (the side story to why I - most definitely not a Gore supporter - was there is interesting, but beside the point).

He was trying to appear extemporaneous, but was occasionally glancing at notes. Then, he came out with a statement that was (approximately): "And with all of these new logarithms that are being developed we are on the verge of a real revolution ... (blah, blah, blah)"

There was an audible gasp in the room. From there on, the bullshit meters were overloaded and I'm sure no one fundamentally believed a word he said. Of course, this didn't prevent these hardened liberals from supporting him, but, I'm sure they had a harder time pretending he was actually capable of understanding of their fields.

Later, a colleague of mine who is really good with words, constructed the following apt one-liner:

If there's one word that "algore" should be able to remember, it's .....

"If you think your topic is more important to the country as a whole -- that more people care about a columnist's Yiddish error than the president's performance -- then clearly this is the political analysis blog for you!"

It's always hilarious when one commenter gets all uppity with another commenter over what a third person's blog is "supposed" to be about.

I'd say that the lack of editorial control at the NYT is a story, a rather common theme on the right. And not knowing one word from another is the kind of thing that happens all the time now everywhere because people "use" spellcheck - a list of possibilities offered when you misspell - instead of knowing what words mean or looking up their meaning. And it happens at the NYT also but they won't admit the meaning of it. The NYT theme from the point of view of the right is that the people there, all liberals, are arrogant, demonstrably careless and ignorant. They kvell, we kvetch.

Maureen Dowd's story certainly was interesting since it indicated a pleasing level of panic among the Dems. But a blue brained conservative simply enjoys a quiet moment of rich appreciation. There was really nothing to add, nothing to wish for. There was even a witless misspelling.

Althouse: "My link goes to Power Line, which has an update saying the NYT has corrected the mistake without a correction notice. Well, this just happens to be one of those rare occasions when I have a copy of the print edition at hand. Here's a photograph of the laughable gaffe:"

In an IQ test I once came across the question, name a word that has eight consonants and just one vowel. I came up with "schlongs," but the correct answer was "strengths." I got it wrong. I thought the test was idiotic. I don't know if there are any other words with that many consonants for just one vowel, but would imagine if it does exist it would be another borrowed word from Yiddish?

It is permissible to change a spelling error without making a big deal of it. Besides to those of us whose command of of Yiddish words and usage is very limited - I have occasionally noticed the use of "kvetching" but never "kvelling" (and even my spellchecker is objecting to kvelling). Until now, after looking them up - I didn't have a clue as to what the words meant.

[For those who are recovered NYT readers & don't get this, the NYT today has an uncivil attack on Paul Ryan for what the writer sees as a new form of Irish Alzheimer's: a refusal to see that Ryan & The GOP, The Koch Brothers, The Tea Party... are but a re-incarnation of the English in Potato-Famine time in their treatment of today's poor in the US.]